


hear the tumblers catch and click

by Froggimus_Rex



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 21:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17906282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggimus_Rex/pseuds/Froggimus_Rex
Summary: If you open a door, you better be prepared for what's on the other side.





	hear the tumblers catch and click

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _Skeleton Key_ by Dessa

The casualness with which Hordak had shared the information should have been a warning. Just a throw away mention of a prisoner, Shadow Weaver's prisoner, during a run down of everything else that had been Shadow Weaver's responsibility and was now hers. Never mind that if Hordak and Shadow Weaver had only one thing in common (which was far from the case), it was that neither of them did casual. There was no way it had been an accident, and not knowing why itched like burr caught under her uniform.

The cell was buried deep in the ship, far from the prison block, beyond where even the most fearless of youthful explorations had taken them (at least, she didn't _remember_ ever being here). The occasional robot trailed through the corridors, but there were no signs that anything that lived, or breathed, or thought, had passed through recently. The smell that rolled out when when she hit the door release set her ears back and her fur bristling, and she froze in the doorway, caught between warring instincts to get closer and to run as far away as possible. It was too dark to see properly, even for her, though in what little light spilled in around her from the corridor she could make out the ends of restraints bolted to the walls, tally marks scratched into the metal.

"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me." The voice had the hoarseness of disuse, an unfamiliar accent, and she had to lock her knees to keep from taking a step closer, from peering into the darkness. No way was she going near something _Shadow Weaver_ thought needed that many chains. "Usually you don't take so long before coming to gloat."

"Yeah, well, you're probably going to be waiting a while for that." Her voice sounded distant and inane in her own ears, as the memory of standing on a precipice, sword heavy in her hand, the vertiginous realisation of tests she was never intended to pass, rushed in.

Silence hung in the air, only to be broken by laughter. Cracked, sobbing laughter edged with grief and rage and madness. But it was wasn't the laughter that had her scrambling backwards, blindly slamming her hand on the door panel, shutting in that smell, that voice, that laugh. It had been the soft, too soft for any human to hear, "Oh, _kitten_."


End file.
